June Update

Hello Everyone,

Hope that this update finds each and every one of you doing well. I am not too sure as to how many of you still read this anymore so if it would be nice to know how many people are reading this to determine whether or not I should keep up with it.

Well lots of things have been happening since I last wrote you. In Japan, the school year is still going unlike the states. School in Japan normally lasts until the end of July and summer vacation only lasts about a month opposed to the 2 or 3 months students have in the summer in America. Japanese students go to school about 240 days a year while we go about 180 in America if not lower. The other day, I also wrote down a few things that differ between American and Japanese schools that you might find interesting.

1. You can find that almost in any school you go to in Japan that the students will be wearing uniforms

2. In American junior highs, we change from classroom to classroom, in Japan, students stay in the same classroom all day more than they don’t and they get a lot longer of break in between classes.

3. In America we buy our books whereas the Japanese students buy their own school books.

4. In America, we have lockers in the hall, Japanese students have a cubby in the classroom.

5. In America, we have a cafeteria where we can select from a variety of food and Japanese all eat the same thing in their own classroom together instead of a cafeteria.

6. Most schools in Japan don’t use an air conditioner like we would in America if they have one.

7. In most schools in America these days, you can find a white board or smart board in almost any classroom. Japan still sticks with the traditional blackboard.

8. In America, we are given the chance to take elective classes as part of our curriculum. There are no electives in Japan.

9. In America, each teacher gets to have his or her own classroom. In Japan, the classroom is for the students and all the teachers share one big room together with their desks.

10. In America, we take a bus to school or ride with our parents. Japanese students ride a bike or walk to school.

11. In America, we can wear the same shoes inside and outside the school, in Japan they have inside shoes for different classrooms.

12. It’s rare to hear that anybody goes to the school on a Saturday or Sunday in America. In Japan this is common.

13. In America, students are not required to clean the school, however, in Japan there is a time set aside every day to clean.

14. Most students in Japan join a club after school whereas in America students sometimes will join an extracurricular activity if they want too.
15. In America we take spanish as a foreign language, Japanese take English. 

These are just a few differences that I have discovered between the way schools in Japan and America are. There is nothing bad about the way Japanese do school. In fact, I find it to be quite interesting and awesome. I wish American schools were a lot more like Japanese actually. 

Overall, work stays the same pretty much every week. I teach junior high students on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, kindergarten students on Tuesdays, and elementary students on Thursdays. I am able to make contact with the other 37 AET’s every other week through training meetings that we have during school. I have also been preparing for this Thursday for a junior high English contest for the middle school students known as Interactive Forum. The students sit in a circle and try holding a conversation for 5 minutes and the best speaker advances. I have been busy trying to prepare my students for that when I am not teaching classes. Things have also been busy with the observations I have had from the Board of Education and parents coming to watch me teach for the past month at least once or twice a week. We have also had quite a few assemblies and even a magic show at the elementary school last week. On a lighter note, I have also had the opportunity to go to dinner with a couple teachers from my junior high in the past month and also all of my teachers from the elementary school last week. I was even able to take Cassie and show her off. Well that's some of the major highlights that have been occurring in my teaching career for the last month.


Teaching Elementary Students


                     Teaching Junior High

    Back of a shirt at an assembly at the junior high


                 Elementary Magic Show

While things have been busy with school, they have also been busy with ministry. Since my last post, I led worship twice (in Japanese), and preached 3 times. I preached 2 times in Tomobe and one time at the biggest church in Japan in Tokyo. In my first two sermons, I talked about how I am a foreigner and how much I stand out because I am not Japanese and I am from America and related that to how we are to be as Christians. This world is not our home and we should stand out from the others we surround ourselves with daily. The time in Tokyo also allowed Cassie and I to go on a mini one-day vacation and get away from Ibaraki for a while and just enjoy one another in Tokyo. We even went on a date to TGI Fridays, which turned out to be quite expensive since it was in Japan. Overall we had a really good time and enjoyed great food.

              Preaching in Tokyo



                    Touring in Tokyo

                In front of T.G.I. Fridays in Tokyo

Also on the ministry front Cassie and I spend the second Monday of every month going to a church camp meeting in Hitachi. We work on the staff at the camp when we can and aren’t in school.  Since my last post, we have gone to a couple of these meetings.  We will be going to the camp next week to do some work while we have some free holidays. I have also had the chance to do some small things around the church like mowing and fixing the flat tire on the k-truck.

                Fixing the K Truck Tire

On Tuesday’s I have also been teaching a free English Bible class voluntarily at Tomobe Church. This also makes Tuesdays pretty hectic because I go straight from school to my Japanese class and then when that is finished, I go to Tomobe to teach my English Bible class. Please pray that the man I am working with will be touched and that I can say the right words to him. His wife is African and a Christian and he seems to be interested and what his life should be about. In the past month, I have been unable to see Saki because she has been busy with school. I hope that I can see her soon and study the Bible again with her soon.

A few weeks ago we also had a goodbye party for Toru because he got enough funds to go to OC for this year. Please pray that the funds will continue to come in so that he can finish his education there. He is dearly missed in Tomobe and we look forward to him finishing school so that he and Yasuki can be the next leaders at the church.

                    Toru's Goodbye Party

As for friends, Cassie and I haven’t been able to do much hanging out. We are either worn out or just too busy. She normally works on Saturday which also makes it kind of hard. We have also been very busy trying to prepare for our wedding to as we will be coming home soon to be doing some planning for a couple of weeks. We were able to have some dinner with some old exchange students from OC about a month ago (Kanami, Ayami, Anna, and Cam). and some other exchange students a couple of weeks ago (Takuto and Yuu). In fact they will be coming over again tomorrow to have dinner with us and watch a movie. We have also even been able to see a couple of good friends who came to Japan from America for short visits (The Chancey's and Rick). It was very encouraging to be able to see them. Cassie and I also got to go see The Proposal in a theater. Great stuff.

          Kanami, Cassie, Cam, Ayami and Anna

                     Takuto and Yuu

              With the Chancey's


                Restaurant in Mito


               With Rick


            Seeing The Vow with Cassie

Well I think I am going to go ahead and wrap this up so that it doesn’t get any longer. Cassie and I are looking forward to coming home and seeing you all soon. Things have not been easy here for us lately because of the passing of my grandpa and the passing of Cassie’s great grandma or as they called her, greatma. We have also missed the 4th of July which made it hard along with a lot of other things.It has been about a year since I was last home an almost 8 months for her. The longest either of us have ever been away from home. We are looking forward to seeing you all soon. Please pray that God will give us energy and strength a little bit longer before we come home for our visit. Love you guys and may God bless you all. 


                Cassie's Great Grandma

          Me and Grandpa and Grandma and Bekah

Job Update

Hello Everyone,

久しぶりね！That means its been a while hasn't it? It seems like its been forever since I wrote in this thing. Anyways, I will try to give you a short and brief update as to what has been going on over here in the Land of Rising Sun.

Well things have been quite hectic since I began my new job to say the least. However, I have really enjoyed my new job a lot. Its been great. It is actually hard to believe that I have almost been working there 2 months already. In this post I will give you and idea of what my new job is like and some of the mission work I am continuing to try and do.

To start out, I moved from the Tomobe, Kasama area to Mito. Mito is the capital city of Ibaraki. I have found my way around the city pretty well for the most part already even though it is the capital.  I am currently employed as an English Teacher for Iitomi Junior High, Elementary, and Kindergarten Schools. Iitomi is actually a fairly smaller more small district of Mito. However, I love it that way because I feel like it is easier to get to know everyone. It is basically like a small little farm town. Every which way you look from the school are farming fields its actually quite amazing. Also, they have way better school lunch than I ever had once in America when I was in school.


          All of the new Mito English Teachers


              All the farming fields by the school

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I go to Iitomi Junior High. As I mentioned earlier, Iitomi is a really small area of Mito. In a lot of schools in Mito, each grade has about 3 different classrooms worth of grades. My school is 3 different classrooms of 3 different grades. Therefore its actually quite small. In all about 71 students go there. The students are a lot of fun and are your typical junior high kind of kids. To be honest, its as if I am doing vocational youth ministry, and I love it. A couple of weeks ago, our 8th graders went on a cruise to Hokkaido; Japans most north island. It was cool because I got to go send them off and spend a little time on the ship with them before they took off. I also really enjoy working with the staff there, especially the English teacher. Iitomi's old English teacher has been in the hospital for some time and so they brought in a temporary 22 year old to work with me. We have lots of fun together teaching the classes. We have even spent some time together outside of class fishing and hanging out.

                       The Junior High


            The 8th graders heading to Hokkaido

My English Teacher after catching a carp

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I work at the Iitomi Elementary School and Kindergarten. I actually only go to the Kindergarten on Tuesday mornings from about 9 in the morning to lunch and spend the rest of Tuesday and all of Thursday at the Elementary School. While working with the junior high kids are a lot of fun, the elementary school is also fun in a different kind of way. We sing lots of English songs and play games with the kids to help them become better at the language. At the junior high, I get to be more like a vocational youth minister and at the elementary school I feel like I get to be a kid again. Each of the schools has amazing things about each of them. They are just amazing in two completely different ways. Also, after school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have been joining there after school Brass Band Club. I was never that great in percussion in high school, but I have enjoyed knowing music well enough to help the elementary percussion section with their music on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Also, it seems like anytime I run into these kids outside of school or even at school, they think you are a rock star. They always want you to come and talk and hang out with them. They are also awesome in their own way. All in all I am loving my job working with the Iitomi schools.


                     My Elementary School


                     My English Classroom

         Cleaning Time at the Elementary School
  (The Kids Clean the School Themselves,No Janitor)

When I am not working at the school, I am continuing to stay quite busy with doing my mission work still as well. Every second Monday of the month, I continue to go to the Hitachi Christian camp meetings. This last one made up for working about an 18 hour day. However, I really enjoy staying involved in the church and being an associate missionary. Every first week in May, Japan has a week where there are four holidays. This week is known as Golden Week. While we were on our Golden Week vacation, Cassie and I also went to camp and hung out for a day as well. Aside from camp, we had a goodbye party for a girl named Miki. She had to move home to be closer with her family and help them out because she lived in the disaster area from the earthquake and tsunami. Miki has yet become a Christian yet still and so Cassie and I tried to just encourage her and be a good influence on her. One of the ways we did that was by having a good bye party for her and making mexican food. Miki loves Mexican food and so do so that was a great fellowship party we had at my apartment. Last month, Cassie and I also attended Accappella Praise Night at Ibaraki Christian as well. There is a couple of people in the group that our not Christians and so Cassie and I went to have some good praise time and to support them as well. We were supposed to have a Bible Study today with Saki, but she had something come up and had to cancel. Keep continuing to pray for the studies I have with her. Aside from those things, we stay very busy with the church on Sunday mornings and afternoons too. However, by about 3 Cassie and me are normally just shot from going non stop all week and try to spend Sunday nights just relaxing and doing nothing with one another opposed to keeping a 100% busy schedule. Its about the only time we have nothing to do during the week and we enjoy every minute of it. In the next few weeks I will be busy leading worship at Tomobe Church tomorrow, preaching at Tomobe next Sunday, and preaching at the church in Tokyo the week after that. I really do have a plate full.


             Everyone at Hitachi Christian Camp


                        Miki's Goodbye Party

Well thats kind of an update of the things going on with my new job and some of the mission work I have been doing. Aside from those things not much else is going on except things like getting gout my first week on the new job. Besides just going to camp for Golden Week, Cassie and I decided to take a day trip together to the NW prefecture of Tochigi to spend some time for a day at the Twin Ring Motegi. This is actually where Japan has their Indy Japan 300 event. We got to see the race track and lots of cool cars while we were there. Also a couple of weeks ago we got to see the solar eclipse as well and that was quite awesome. You can see a picture of what we saw below.




 Cassie and Me as we entered Tochigi

                    The Race Track Entrance

                    Solar Eclipse from Japan




  Cassie and I also went to one of her Teachers house for
                 a barbecue on Golden Week

   .....And we saw an old friend from OC, Yukari


Well I should probably stop here, we are having a good-bye party for Toru tonight because he gets to go to Oklahoma Christian. I need to get his presents finished so we can present them tonight. If you guys have any questions or want to know anything, hit me up at jared.scism@alumni.oc.edu and I will be happy to let you know anything. Also, I will be home in Oklahoma from July 28th, August 8th if any of you would like to meet and catch up and talk more about my adventures here. Have a good day and God Bless You all. 



Cassie and I under the Cherry Blossom Tree at Church

Transition Update

Since I last updated you, things have been extremely busy. I finally moved out of Tomobe or Kasama and moved to Mito on April 1st. I am not fooling you either! Just to give you an idea of the city differences, Mito is the capital of the prefecture Ibaraki that I am living in and Tomobe was a small country side town. It would be like moving from Luther to Oklahoma City. At the end of time in Tomobe, we had our goodbye party for the LST Team and I began my preparations for moving to Mito! Things have also been blooming making it very beautiful here. All of the beginning of the blooming of things here make things feel great for new transitions and beginnings in my life here in Japan.

LST Goodbye Party!

Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) in Mito

Since I have been in Mito, I have been busy going to change my address in places like the post office, bank, cell phone, utilities, my drivers license, my foreigner card and all. I was also busy finishing up some last minute paper work to transfer my new car and scooter in my name. It was kind of a challenge doing it all in Japanese, but I really ended up enjoying the challenge and learned a lot of new Japanese in the process.

It feels great that I finally I got moved into my new apartment. If any of you know me well enough, its hard for me to not have people over. I also ended up having a bunch of my students from Ibaraki Christian over this last week for a barbecue and made some rolls and mashed potatoes. Aside from having people over, the couple who gave me my car also gave Cassie and I practically their entire apartment for a small price. In fact, they gave me enough stuff that my entire apartment was practically furnished and I had to hardly pay for anything extra other than the small fee. Since we got all of their stuff, I not only got settled in my apartment but also got Cassie's apartment put together as much as we could to prepare it for when I move in after we get married. This way we can just move the stuff I have in my apartment now and put it in her apartment easily before we go home to get married. I'll try to post pictures of the apartments next time.

While I am transitioning into my new job to become a teacher, there are also a lot of teachers who are leaving. One of them is my friend Allen and his wife Laura. I went to Africa with Allen when I was at Oklahoma Christian. It is weird to see them go, but it will be great also meeting some of the new English teachers soon.

Last dinner with Allen and Laura!

Easter Sunday we ended up having a great worship. We had worship at the church in the morning. After worship was over, we went to the Tomobe Church Grave and celebrated those who had been raised from the dead and gone to Heaven for their faith. After the celebration, we went to the park next to the cemetery and had a picnic.

At the Tomobe Church Grave!

Picnic after going to the Tomobe Church Grave!

In better news, Toru's dad finally decided to get baptized. Last Monday, I attended my last preachers meeting and then came back and watched Marlin baptize Toru's dad. It was such an incredible time to know that not only will Toru have his dad's support but also his mom's support for him to be a preacher. After the baptism, Cassie and I went to the Hitachi Christian Camp meeting for the work camp we will have next month.

Toru's dad being baptized!

On Tuesday, I went to Ibaraki Christian University and met with some of my students from the last school year I studied with. I was albe to meet with Saki and talk with her some about talking with her father about being a Chrisitan. She still has yet to talk to him. Please continue to pray that she will be able to talk to him soon so that she can be a Christian. After meeting with my students, I went and met the KGK College Christian Club group and meet some of the members.

KGK Meeting!

This next Sunday Cassie and I will take some engagment pictures with the Cherry Blossom trees and next Monday I start my job with training for being an English Teacher. Please pray for this transition!

I appreciate all of you for your prayers and support. Thank you all for everything you have done for me. Please email me if you have any questions at jared.scism@alumni.oc.edu and I will answer them. May God Bless You All!

Beginning of March (Possibly The Last Post!)

Hello Everyone!

Hope you are all doing well! Things are going pretty well here! There is quite a bit to tell so I am going to go ahead and get with it.

For the past month we have had a LST team here with us. They have been averaging about 35-40 English Bible Studies every week. A couple of weeks ago during their off day, we went and spent some time with the a couple of the people they have been studying with. We ended up having Tenpura which is like a fried fish and fried vegetables. You can see a picture of what it looks like below. This is one of the LST readers named Maria Laura. She got the Sky Tree Tenpura. Sky Tree is the new tower that is being built in Tokyo now to make the tallest tower in the world!

Maria and her Tenpura Sky Tower

A couple of pics with the LST team in Ibaraki

On the 3rd, Cassie and I held a Spring Sing party for all the old exchange students and people who love OC at Cassie's Apartment. We had a few people show up. In the picture below you can see the two girls who came earlier with Cassie and me. After the party was over, we returned to Tomobe to have one of LST's weekly parties. On the 3rd we had an American Breakfast Party. We had pancakes and sausage. Japanese people normally eat fish and rice for breakfast. These parties are used as an outreach to have fun and show that Christians can also have a good time as well. Altogether there were 25 to 30 of us.

Spring SIng Watch Party!

LST Party!

As of this month, every first Sunday of the month I am responsible for leading worship. For some people this may seem difficult enough just to lead worship. However, I also had to lead it in all Japanese. While my Japanese is not horrible, I have still have yet to improve a whole lot more. However, I lead a prayer, did communion and contribution, led singing, and gave the announcements all in Japanese! I am not sure how I did but I got an applause afterwards so I guess I did alright. After worship we had our monthly church meeting in the afternoon and then guitar class later that night along with evening worship. Because part of the LST team is from Argentina and one of their friends came to visit the church from Argentina and he only knows Spanish, we ended up having a trilingual service. Also, to my surprise, one of the students I had been studying with at the college, who lives an hour away by car also ended up coming to worship. He not only came on the 4th at night but also on the 11th, this last Sunday. This last Sunday marked the tragedy for the one year anniversary since last year's big earthquake. I wanted so bad to be a part of a group that might have done something that day. However, I ended up staying home sick. Please continue to pray for all the family and victims and the troubles some of them are still having!

Leading Worship!

The following Monday, I decided to go to eat lunch with the student who came to church on Sunday. We had curry together and I talked with him some about why is not a Christian yet if he believes in God. He was telling me that he is responsible for the family grave which is Buddhist. While he still believes, he has a long way to go. Please pray that he can find a way to explain to his family that this is not necessary for him. Also this last Monday we had our monthly preachers meeting and camp meeting. Cassie and I also presented our design for the poster for this spring's camp. When I returned from the camp meeting, I had the surprise and pleasure to see a guy I studied the Bible with at Ibaraki Christian a few years ago. I have been trying to get in touch with him to start studying again since I arrived, but he always told me he was too busy. However, I am hoping after some talking that we had this last week and spending some time together that we can get back to studying again. Please pray that this person can see that God wants what is best for him and that he keeps looking towards the right path. His name is Keiichi!

Keiichi and Me!

On Mondays I have continued to attend the church Bible classes. As of now, we are studying the book of John. Also on Mondays, I study with Masako. Last week Masako and I talked about how the reason we have many races and languages is because of the Tower of Babel. This week we talked about Cain and Abel. While I am not sure how she is starting to feel, she has been very open about talking about being a Christian. Please pray that Masako's heart can be changed and that she wants to know more about the gospel.

This last Tuesday, Cassie and I went to have dinner with a girl who went to OC as an exchange student for the past 8 months. We had a really good time and got some good Italian Food.

For the most part, Tuesdays and Wednesdays have been slow recently because Saki (The girl I hope to baptize) returned home. As of right now, I have not heard from Saki as to whether she has talked to her dad or not if she can be baptized. Please pray that God will help her with the confidence to as her dad and that he will be understanding and allow for me to baptize her.

Lately, things with Toru have been crazy. Toru has had many people to spend a lot of time with so we have not got to study as much lately. As of right now, Toru will go to OC in June. Please pray that Toru will get the funds to be able to attend college there. Right now, things are quite tight with him going. Please pray that God blesses this effort.

On Thursdays I have not been able to study with Setsuko because she has been having problems with her shoulders. The other lady, Hiromi,whom I have been studying with has also began to have a hard time wanting to come. Please pray that they can regain health.

On Fridays, I have been able to finally begin to study with another lady after the church cooking class is over. However, she is not a Christian. The first week she was begging to not study the Bible with me. Nevertheless, this week we were able to get some talking about Christianity in rather than only speaking English. Last week I also promised my elementary class that if they averaged a 70% on their test that we would play games the entire last class period and I would get them cake. After taking a book comprehensive final, most of of them got High B's and Low C's. Therefore we will have a fun class with games and food this Friday. Last Friday after my elementary class was over we had a youth group activity and went to play pool. Over all we had quite a group come opposed to the small group of 4 we had on our first youth group activity night of playing pool.

At Cybex!

Having a Devo before Pool!

Last Saturday, we had another LST party and had cookies and tea/milk. Overall there was quite a group that came. Everyone enjoyed playing cards and eating cookies. However, I ended up getting a stomach ache and ended up not being able to participate. By the looks of everyones faces, it looked like everyone had a good time.

In other news, today will be my last day of classes at the church. My contract with the schools in Mito will begin on April 1st therefore I will move to Mito on April 2nd. I will use the next couple weeks to relax and begin packing to move from Kasama to Mito which is about 45 minutes away by car. I will also be able to get my car on the 31st of this month. Last but not least and MOST IMPORTANT, I asked Cassie, to marry me yesterday. We will be getting married December 29th this year in Oklahoma City. As of right now, LIFE IS GOOD! I hope to keep you updated when I can as a teacher but it won't be near as frequent. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email me. May God Bless each of you! Thank you all for your support and prayers you have given me during my time as a missionary. I pray that I can be an effective vocational missionary once I began teaching. Thank you all once again.

Cassie said Yes after asking her to marry me and reading 1 Corinthians 13